Stevie Richards
In May 1997, Richards suffered a neck injury so severe that he announced his retirement, before recovering and signing with WCW. He wrestled briefly as a member of Raven's Flock but failed his physical exams and left WCW in December of the same year. Richards commented on The Rise and Fall of ECW DVD that Raven had told him that he was only there to be his "bitch lackey", and that he would get him fired if he pushed for more of a larger role, knowing both would suffer for demanding more than what was above their current status. In 1999, Richards would sign with the WWF in a full-time capacity. He would make his WWF debut on the August 15, 1999 episode of Sunday Night Heat helping out his old tag team partner, The Blue Meanie. The two briefly became a tag team before taking on the gimmick of an impersonator. Mocking various then-current characters, he would appear, among others, as an Acolyte, a Dudley Boy, a member of the Brood until briefly settling on Mick Foley's old Dude Love persona. Once he was done with the Dude Love character, Richards would go on to portray Test, Chyna, and Chris Jericho before suffering an ankle injury. He returned to a stint on WWF's tertiary shows (Jakk'ed and Metal), in which he largely found himself on the losing end of several matches. Richards would return back on main WWF programming with an entirely new look and character: one haircut and several interviews condemning the content of WWF's programming, he became a full fledged villain forming a stable known as the Right to Censor (based on the WWF's then-problems with the Parents Television Council organization). He changed his name to Steven Richards and became a manager for the many wrestlers that he recruited including The Godfather, Bull Buchanan, Ivory, and Val Venis. When Chyna was featured in Playboy magazine, Richards demanded a match between Chyna's associate Eddie Guerrero and Val Venis. After Chyna had pantsed Richards leaving him in his white socks and blue briefs, costing Venis the match, Richards and his stable feuded against her. After the Right to Censor stable broke up, Richards found himself off programming for a little bit. Not long afterward, he cut a promo condemning The Undertaker for brutally attacking the Right to Censor, causing the group to disband. When Undertaker confronted Richards, KroniK attacked him. He quickly confirmed his alliance with the WCW tag team, thus becoming a de facto member of The Alliance and managed them briefly before they were quickly released. Richards remained on the brand's "B" shows until Team Alliance lost at Survivor Series in 2001. Richards was fired along with the rest of the alliance roster by Vince McMahon until Ric Flair was able to save his job and get him drafted over to the Raw brand. There, Steven Richards began using the gimmick of a psychotic jobber and became a twenty-two-time Hardcore Champion trading it several times with Bubba Ray Dudley, Booker T, Crash Holly, Shawn Stasiak, Justin Credible, Bradshaw, Terri, and Tommy Dreamer. Richards would team with Justin Credible to lose to The Big Show in a 2 On 1 Handicap Match on the Heat before Backlash in 2002. Richards eventually formed an alliance with Victoria in late 2002 as a psychotic couple helping each other win their matches. Richards also helped Victoria retain her WWE Women's Championship. It was also around this time that Richards would first proclaim himself the General Manager of Heat. During a match on Heat with Heidenreich in November 2003, Richards almost broke his neck when Heidenreich botched an Electric chair maneuver, but Richards was not seriously injured and continued to compete on Heat and occasionally on Raw in late 2003-early 2004. As Victoria started to make her latest face turn, the duo quietly separated. In August 2004, Richards began dressing in drag as "The Mystery Woman" and helping Victoria win matches. He was finally unmasked at Unforgiven when saving Victoria from Tyson Tomko and then heel Trish Stratus, but ended up being squashed in an impromptu match to Tomko. Richards would then go on a long losing streak on Heat in late 2004 into early 2005. After the Right to Censor stable broke up, Richards found himself off programming for a little bit. Not long afterward, he cut a promo condemning The Undertaker for brutally attacking the Right to Censor, causing the group to disband. When Undertaker confronted Richards, KroniK attacked him. He quickly confirmed his alliance with the WCW tag team, thus becoming a de facto member of The Alliance and managed them briefly before they were quickly released. Richards remained on the brand's "B" shows until Team Alliance lost at Survivor Series in 2001. Richards was fired along with the rest of the alliance roster by Vince McMahon until Ric Flair was able to save his job and get him drafted over to the Raw brand. There, Steven Richards began using the gimmick of a psychotic jobber and became a twenty-two-time Hardcore Champion trading it several times with Bubba Ray Dudley, Booker T, Crash Holly, Shawn Stasiak, Justin Credible, Bradshaw, Terri, and Tommy Dreamer. Richards would team with Justin Credible to lose to The Big Show in a 2 On 1 Handicap Match on the Heat before Backlash in 2002. Richards eventually formed an alliance with Victoria in late 2002 as a psychotic couple helping each other win their matches. Richards also helped Victoria retain her WWE Women's Championship. It was also around this time that Richards would first proclaim himself the General Manager of Heat. During a match on Heat with Heidenreich in November 2003, Richards almost broke his neck when Heidenreich botched an Electric chair maneuver, but Richards was not seriously injured and continued to compete on Heat and occasionally on Raw in late 2003-early 2004. As Victoria started to make her latest face turn, the duo quietly separated. In August 2004, Richards began dressing in drag as "The Mystery Woman" and helping Victoria win matches. He was finally unmasked at Unforgiven when saving Victoria from Tyson Tomko and then heel Trish Stratus, but ended up being squashed in an impromptu match to Tomko. Richards would then go on a long losing streak on Heat in late 2004 into early 2005. Richards was part of the new ECW brand's first pay-per-view, December to Dismember, defeating Rene Dupree in a pre-show dark match. Other than this contest Richards did not appear on ECW between September 2006 (when he joined up with the first version of ECW's New Breed - Test, Mike Knox and Hardcore Holly) and February 2007 (when he lost to CM Punk for a second time). Richards appeared as a Lumberjack in the pre-WrestleMania 23 Lumberjack Tag Team match. He would then go on to lose to CM Punk a further three times. In mid-2007, Richards turned face again due to fan reaction, and teamed with Tommy Dreamer against the New Breed on house shows, replacing The Sandman (who was drafted to Raw) in the ECW Originals. On July 24, Richards defeated Thorn in an upset after reversing a crucifix powerbomb into a backslide pin. This was Richards' first victory on WWE television since September 2006. A week later a re-match took place throughout which Richards was dominated, however he defeated Thorn once again via roll-up. On August 7, he was ambushed by Thorn while giving an interview backstage. He would once again defeat Thorn on August 14 by disqualification after the referee declared a disqualification when Thorn continued to massively "destroy" Richards after Thorn had already won. He would then get revenge by ambushing Thorn while giving an interview the next week. Their feud would continue with Richards teaming up with Dreamer and CM Punk on different occasions against Thorn and Elijah Burke with Richards losing and winning a match. Richards was eliminated from the Elimination Chase for the ECW Championship on the September 18 edition of ECW. He was then absent from WWE programming due to having throat surgery. Almost five months later, Richards made his return on the February 12, 2008 edition of ECW, defeating a jobber with his signature Stevie-T. He would then go on to beat another jobber, followed by a victory over Mike Knox (this was Richards last victory on WWE Television). In the following months Richards would compete in the pre-WrestleMania 24-Man Battle Royal, lose to Shelton Benjamin and The Great Khali, team with Kelly Kelly to lose to Mike Knox and Layla, lose to Mike Knox in a singles match and appeared as one of the fourteen ECW Superstars who faced Triple H and Mr. Kennedy in a 14 On 2 Handicap Match on Raw. Richards would commentate on the Extreme Rules match between Mike Knox and Tommy Dreamer on the 100th episode of ECW. He would remain with ECW in the June 2008 Draft, however would wrestle his last three matches with the company on SmackDown!. He lost to Vladimir Kozlov twice in July 2008. He wrestled what turned out to be his last match in the company, as he lost to The Brian Kendrick and was released from his WWE contract shortly thereafter on August 15, 2008.